Lord McKenzie of Luton: Precise comparisons between the cost of the European Parliament and the Houses of Parliament are difficult. The requested information is set out below. Unlike previous years' Answers to similar Questions, which were given on a cash basis, the House of Commons and House of Lords have provided data relating to costs on a resource basis, consistent with their resource accounts. The European Parliament has not adopted resource accounting and budgeting and all its cost figures have been presented on a cash basis.
	
		Per Capita Cost Per Member
		
			 £'000s 2004–05 Unaudited Provisional Figures 
			 House of Commons 1  2 489 
			 House of Lords  2 131 
		
	
	Figures for 2000–01 to 2003–04 for the House of Commons and House of Lords can be found in the relevant year's resource accounts 3 4. European Parliament figures are available on its website5.
	
		Number of Sitting Days
		
			 Sitting Days ParliamentaryYear2003–04 ParliamentaryYear2004–05 CalendarYear 2004 2004–05FinancialYear 
			 European Parliament6 7 173 161 160 163 
			 House of Commons 157 65 160 151 
			 House of Lords 157 63 160 152 
		
	
	Annual Costs
	European Parliament
	The European Parliament outturn figures for calendar years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and budget figures for 2004 and 2005 can be found on the European Parliament website5.
	
		House of Commons
		
			 £ millions 2004–05 Provisional Unaudited Outturn 
			 Members' salaries, pensions   travel and allowances 132.8 
			 Salaries and pensions for   administrative staff 55.5 
			 Accommodation costs 2 91.0 
			 Other administration costs 43.0 
			 Total 322.3 
		
	
	Details of previous years expenditure by the House of Commons can be found in the Members and administration resource accounts 3 .
	
		House of Lords
		
			 £ millions 2004–05 Provisional Unaudited Outturn 
			 Members' expenses 14.3 
			 House of Lords staff costs 15.5 
			 Accommodation costs 2 43.8 
			 Other administration costs 16.7 
			 Total 90.3 
		
	
	Details of previous years' expenditure by the House of Lords can be found in its resource accounts4.
	1The figures are calculated on the assumption that there are 659 Members.
	2From 2003–04 onwards the figures are based on the capital charge reducing from 6 per cent to 3.5 per cent.
	3House of Commons resource accounts can be found on its website (HC419, HC420, HC67, HC68, HC1239, HC1240) at www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmhocpap.htm#resource.
	 4 House of Lords resource accounts can be found on its website (HL23, HL44, HL11, HL197) at www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldres.htm. 5 European Parliament budget information and number of Members can be found on its website atwww.europa.eu.int/eur-lex/budget/www/index-en.htmandwwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep6/owwp–meps2.repartition?ilR=EN&iorig=home.
	6  2004, being an election year, had fewer meeting days than a normal year.
	7  Includes plenary sessions as well as part-plenaries, committee days, political group days in Brussels and constituency days.

Baroness Andrews: In general, works that amount to "development" in planning law require a planning application to be made to the relevant local authority. However, certain types of relatively small-scale work to an individual property benefit from permitted development rights, whereby this requirement is removed. These are set out in the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development Order) 1995 (GPDO).
	As a general rule, those in houses can install solar panels and photovoltaic cells without needing to make a planning application, provided the panels do not project significantly above the plane of the roof. Similarly, whether household wind turbines require planning permission would depend on the type of development that would be required, for example, whether the highest part of the roof was exceeded or whether the shape of any roof slope fronting a highway was altered to a material extent.
	If these works were deemed to be permitted development they would not require planning permission in a conservation area unless the local planning authority had made a direction under Article 4 of the GPDO to remove permitted development rights.
	Where a planning application is required, Planning Policy Statement 22, Renewable Energy (PPS22) will apply. While PPS22 does not contain an explicit presumption in favour of renewable energy developments, it recognises that small-scale renewable energy schemes including solar panels, small-scale wind turbines and photovoltaic cells can be incorporated into both new developments and some existing buildings. It says that local planning authorities should specifically encourage such schemes through positively expressed policies in local development documents.